Sunday, November 17, 2013

I moved in with John in August and despite the dozens of
roommates I've had throughout my life, I've never had one quite like him. Just by looking at us you'd think that John
and I are brothers. We're both the same
height and build, have the same hair color, and the size of our noses is about
one standard deviation above the mean.
Despite looking relatively the same, our personalities are totally
different.

I recently took a personality test that said I was 84%
extroverted. John took the same test and
was 100% introverted. John quickly
realized that I'm extremely extroverted (and slightly annoying?) so he lent me
a book he has about introversion so I could understand him better. It was a good move on his part because I
really had no idea what it's like to be introverted. According to the book, I, as an extrovert,
get my energy from people and events.
John, as an introvert, gets his energy from spending time by himself and
being with too many other people can be draining for him. John enjoys company, but has to space it out a bit. Armed with this new knowledge about John I
try to give him space and allow silence to exist in the house which I usually
am unable to do. Living with John has
been good for me, but I still can't help being myself.

Despite
our differences, John is one of the best roommates I've ever had (and hyperbole
is my favorite thing in the whole wide world!).
I have my own bathroom that John doesn't use, and yet he still fills up
the soap dispenser and takes out the trash.
He's really thoughtful like that.
He also makes really delicious food that he shares with me and even
bought me a steak dinner once. No
complaints from me.

John and I often spend our evenings reading in the living
room. John, without saying a word,
usually gets up, walks to his bedroom and closes the door. I know he's an introvert and all, but it
seemed odd to me that he would go to bed without saying good night, especially
since we were just sitting in the same room together. I told him that that seemed weird to me so a
few nights later when we were both reading in the living room he got up to go
to bed and said, "Well, see you later," and I said, "You're
supposed to say good night, John," and he just mumbled in fake frustration
to be funny and walked away.

A staged picture of John and me reading

The next night when he got up to go to bed he said,
"Well, it's bedtime," and I said, "You're getting so
close!" and then he walked away.

Last night I went to bed before John (which is an extremely
rare occurrence) and as I was walking to my room I said, "Well see you
tomorrow," and John jokingly said, "Good night!" I replied, "Yes! Score!" while making a victorious gesture with my arm (I can't figure out how else to describe that. You know, it's like the gesture you make when you're trying to get a semi to honk his horn, but down by your side. How do you say that?). John had finally wished me a good night, and it sure was.